Seventeen years ago, back when I was probably still wetting my bed, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia stepped into the heart of our party’s story. Chosen as running mate to H.E Nana Akufo-Addo, he has known no rest since.
Think about it. Many vice-presidential candidates come and go. Some throw punches at their own flagbearers, others quietly slip away. The vice president is, on paper, the second most powerful person in the land; in reality, he can be little more than an apprentice or a personal assistant. Chiefs of Staff, de facto “prime ministers,” even ambitious ministers can wield more real influence.
But Dr Bawumia didn’t fade. He refused to be irrelevant. Year after year, he found a way to matter, pushing digital reforms, breaking barriers in banking, making everyday life a little easier for millions.
I still remember, as a student, boarding a rickety trotro all the way to Central University just to hear him lecture. I sat there the whole time, wide-eyed, taking notes. His quality was obvious then. And it’s still obvious now.
Then came 2024. We lost. And with defeat came the easy story: Bawumia caused it. Everyone knows that’s not true. But opponents needed a campaign message, so they made one. We can let them talk. We know better.
What we cannot allow is something else. We cannot allow the watchers to rewrite history.
You know the ones I mean. The people who had real power but chose to sit on their hands. The ones who whispered in backrooms, plotting how to block and remove candidates they feared. The ones who quietly cheered the NDC, hoping a loss would clear their path. The ones who stored up their best ideas like hidden treasure, saving them for a future campaign while ordinary party workers laboured through rain and dust, at their own expense, just to keep the flame alive.
Now they step forward and call themselves saviours. No. That dog won’t hunt.
And then there are the money men. They think politics is a market day, count your cedis, count your dollars, buy your delegates. But that is not what conservatism means. The true heart of our tradition is not wealth; it’s values. Hard work. Honesty. Service. Intellectualism. Community. Faith in enterprise and in one another.
If money were the measure, and DMB and the NPP could finance the 2024 campaign, we will find our way in 2028. But he knows that a movement built on cheques collapses when the cheques stop.
Through it all, look at him. The watchers calculate. The money men bargain. Yet Dr Bawumia remains calm. They expected him to break. They miscalculated.
You cannot underestimate the Quiet Genius.
He’s steady. He’s unflinching. He listens when others shout. He acts when action matters. He carries, in his very life, the story of those who have been doubted because of where they come from or how they pray, and he turns that doubt into service.
So when January comes, the choice will be clear. We can hand the future to watchers who stood aside. We can sell it to money men who think leadership is for sale. Or we can stand with the builder who stayed in the storm and is still standing today.
Let’s choose the man who proves that calm is strength, that inclusion is power, and that quiet work can change a nation.
Let’s choose Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
By Kelvin Gyimah Ph.D.(c)
